We call on the Venice Commission and the EU to stand firmly on the issue of independence of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine

A month ago, on April 24, 2023, NGOs have already made a statement calling on the Venice Commission and the EU not to approve the Constitutional Court reform model suggested by the Parliament at that time. We are grateful that our concerns were accommodated and the Ukrainian authorities changed their stance on the key provisions of the law.

On May 25, 2023, MPs registered new draft law No. 9322 “On amendments to certain legislative acts of Ukraine to clarify provisions on a competitive selection of candidates for the position of a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine”.

We welcome the progress achieved in the new version of the draft law in relation to the provision of the casting vote to members of the Advisory Group of Experts (AGE) appointed by the quota of international partners. At the same time, we would like to pay attention to the new dangerous provision which is being introduced.

The draft law provides for an additional and final stage of the competition, “ranking voting”, which will follow after the integrity and professionalism vetting. According to the draft law, ranking voting means that the AGE forms its ranking of candidates, where the highest are those candidates who receive all six votes of the members of the Advisory Group. We believe that this stage of the competition was introduced to neutralize the decisive vote of international experts at the final stage and to ensure the appointment of loyal candidates.

This provision apparently presents itself as a means of reinforcing the influence of the competition outcomes, yet it, in essence, serves as a mechanism to politically manipulate and adjust its ultimate result. It gives the political authorities ultimate leverage over which

candidates will be appointed to the CCU and thus completely nullifies the casting vote of the internationals.

We firmly believe that this provision politicises the selection process for the CCU and, therefore, should be eliminated from the draft law. We hold a strong conviction that voting should be conducted for all the candidates recommended by the AGE, irrespective of the number of votes in favor.

We, independent Ukrainian NGOs that have been working on the judicial, anti-corruption reforms and European integrations, call on the European Union and the Venice Commission to stand firmly on protection of the independence and integrity of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine by not allowing the harmful provisions of the new draft law on “ranking voting” to be adopted.

Signed by:

AntAC

Automaidan

DEJURE Foundation

Anti-Corruption Headquarters

StateWatch

Institute of legislative ideas

CHESNO Movement

Centre for Economic Strategy